Bad Foodies

Last night, we hosted a little dinner party at a nice restaurant. It's quickly become our favorite - and the owners have decided to retire in the new year.

One of the people in our group ordered the salmon. I've seen two other people order the salmon in the past, and I've read the description of the dish on the menu several times while considering ordering it myself.

Our friend's meal arrived, and two or three plump shrimps were atop her fish. The problem is that she is quite allergic to shellfish. She alerted the waitress to the fact that she could not eat the meal as prepared. The waitress, who was really something of a TEEN (read, not terribly concerned with her job), took the plate back, and returned shortly with new fish on the plate. The problem was that they just removed the fish - but left everything else there. In the two previous times I've seen the dish delivered, there were not shrimps. In the description, there is no mention of shrimps. We think the cook probably thought he/she was doing a bit extra and something festive.

For those of you not familiar with food allergies, there are degrees of sensitivity. Some people cannot eat food prepared with offending ingredients. Others can't even inhale the steam of the offending foods. Our friend feared that if she ate anything on the plate that was touching the sauce from the prior plate, we'd end up spending our evening in the ER while they reopened her airway.

This incident reminded me of a community chili cook off I went to many years ago. One of the local nursing homes prepared a chicken chili to serve to the general public. The problem I found was that there were peanuts in their chili and peanuts are one of those foods that cause allergic people to stop breathing rather quickly. And, the nursing home was not warning patrons of the possible allergic ingredient. (Most folks would not have thought to ask if there were nuts in the chili either.)

I believe that when you are hosting people, feeding people, serving people, etc you owe it to them to inquire about food allergies and sensitivities. If you are in a restaurant, you need to deliver the dish to the table as it was described in the menu. It's not just a matter of being a good host, but could easily be a matter of life and death.